1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a browser apparatus connected to a server for providing information.
2. Description of Related Art
A browser apparatus such as a personal computer equipped with software for browsing homepages offered by multiple servers on a network, e.g. the Internet, is provided having a so-called bookmark function for saving the URL (uniform resource locator) address of each homepage of the server on the Internet.
When the address of a desired homepage to be accessed frequently has been registered by a user to his or her browser apparatus, the homepage can readily be viewed without manually entering the address through a keyboard. The name and address of the homepage once registered in advance can be selected and called for by the user easily operating a mouse.
Also, a list of classifications including various categories of sports, news, entertainments, and others is determined by a user for ease of the browsing of homepages and used for assigning a desired classification to the address of each homepage for registration.
A procedure of registering the address of a homepage to one of the classifications is now explained referring to FIGS. 1 to 4.
As shown in FIG. 1, the procedure starts with Step S20 where a user accesses through a browser apparatus 12 to a desired homepage of a server. Then, the homepage of the server appears in a homepage display area 31 of a window 30 displayed on a display unit of the browser apparatus as shown in FIG. 2. Simultaneously, the address of the homepage is displayed in an address display area 32.
This is followed by Step S21 where a homepage menu 34 on a menu bar 33 is selected by the user operating an input device which is a pointing device such as a mouse or a touchpanel pen. Then, a pulldown menu 35 appears at Step S22.
When an extra menu 36 in the pulldown menu 35 is selected at Step S23, a dialogue box 37 shown in FIG. 3 is displayed over the window 30 at Step S24.
When a classification button 38 in the dialogue box 37 is enabled by the user at Step S25, a list of classifications 39 shown in FIG. 4 appears at Step S26. The list of classifications 39 includes a number of the classifications 40 predetermined and registered as well as names or addresses of the homepages which have been unclassified and unregistered.
When a desired one of the classifications 40 in the list of classifications 39 is selected and an OK button 41 is clicked at Step S27, the address of the homepage being accessed and displayed in the address display area 32, shown in FIG. 2, is registered to the classification at Step S28.
As understood, the above procedure of classifying and registering an address corresponding to each data supplied from a server requires a redundancy of steps.
The list of classifications 39 shown in FIG. 4 is displayed in the form of a tree of classification levels and may extend downwardly in the window 30 as the items of classification are increased thus overlapping the other areas of the window 30 and impairing the appearance.
An object of the present invention is to provide a browser apparatus, an address registering method, and a browser system in which the classification and registration of an address corresponding to data supplied from a server can be carried out by a user operating a simpler procedure without troublesome rules.
For achievement of the above object of the present invention, a browser apparatus for displaying data supplied from a server over a communication means is provided having a classification unit for assigning at least one of classifications to the data supplied from the server, a memory for storing an address corresponding to the data as well as the classification determined by the classification unit, a display unit for displaying the data supplied from the server in a first region of the screen and the classification of the data in a second region of the same, a command unit responsive to the action of a user for controlling the location of a pointer displayed on the screen of the display unit, and a control means responsive to shift of the pointer from the first region to the second region of the screen by the command unit for storing an address corresponding to the data displayed in the first region into the memory in association with its classification displayed in the second region.
For achievement of the above object of the present invention, an address registering method is provided comprising the steps of displaying data supplied from a server in a first region of the screen of a display unit and classifications for the data in a second region of the same, and carrying out a drag-and-drop action to shift from any desired point in the first region to one of the classifications displayed in the second region so that an address corresponding to the data displayed in the first region is stored into a memory in association with its classification.
For achievement of the above object of the present invention, a browser system is provided having a server for supplying data, a classification unit for assigning at least one of classifications to the data supplied from the server, a memory for storing an address corresponding to the data as well as the classification determined by the classification unit, a display unit for displaying the data supplied from the server in a first region of the screen and the classification of the data in a second region of the same, a command unit responsive to the action of a user for controlling the location of a pointer displayed on the screen of the display unit, and a control unit responsive to a shift of the pointer from the first region to the second region of the screen by the command unit for storing an address corresponding to the data displayed in the first region into the memory in association with its classification displayed in the second region.